Friday 30 October 2009

Poor Bolta - he can't even get up a good snark anymore


Early on a Monday morning Andrew Bolt sent a weak and feeble snark down the digital highway which ended up as a Herald Sun post at 7.21am on 26th October 2009.
He'd obviously only recently noticed how many times the Australian Prime Minister makes no apology for this and that and he listed 7 instances of 'no apology' from June 2008 until this month.
It must have been a hard weekend at the Bolt house because he obviously hadn't anything decent prepared for publication and hurriedly cast a short net.

Here is what a quick squiz at Open Australia throws up with a simple search through Hansard records:

As I said in response to a question in this place yesterday, this government makes no apology whatsoever for the fact that it is expanding its cooperation with the Indonesian government in the area of people smuggling. {Hansard 22nd October '09}

This government makes no apology whatsoever for the fact that we have a tough line on asylum seekers when it comes to dealing with the challenges of people smugglers around the world—tough but humane.
{Hansard 21st October '09}

That is the right way to proceed. It is called a rational policy debate. That is what we on this side of the House are engaged in. We do not apologise for one element of it. {Hansard 18th August '09}

I make no apology whatsoever for being conservative about the projections we have made about the impact of the global recession on Australia. {Hansard 3rd June '09}

I would say to the barracking new Leader of the Opposition, the member for Wentworth, this: on the question of terrorism, this government makes no apology for taking a hard line. It makes no apology for making clear-cut statements to the Australian community that we will not brook— ..........
We take a hard line. We make no apology for it. {Hansard 17th September '08}

We are a party and a government of nation-building and we are so without apology. {Hansard 3rd September '08}

We make no apology at all for the fact that we have commissioned Ken Henry of the Treasury to undertake the Henry commission of inquiry. {Hansard 26th June '08}

Families across the country are dealing with real challenges, so we make no apology—while those opposite giggle and guffaw about the financial pressures faced by families today—for delivering $47 billion of tax cuts to those families, no apology for ensuring that we deliver an education tax refund of $4.4 billion, no apology for ensuring that we increase the childcare tax rebate... {Hansard 15th March '08}

Since the snark was posted there have been other mentions, which include this blockbuster later on that same Monday:

Our policy is unapologetically tough but humane.....
is unapologetically tough when it comes to people smugglers and unapologetically
humane when it comes to dealing with asylum seekers. It is a tough but humane approach......

We, the government, make no apology for this regional approach.....
Our policy is also unapologetically humane. We have ended mandatory detention for children.......
It is a balanced approach, a mainstream approach; one which unapologetically also engages our friends and partners in the region, {Hansard Proof 26th October '09}


But even raising the score to 23 versions of what is almost a prime ministerial verbal tic doesn't make Bolt's paid 'professional' MSM post worth the effort. So far that's only roughly one non-apology uttered every month since Rudd was elected. Bolt's post tastes of FAIL. Try again.

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